Package 'profile' led firms to warn FBI

Phenol was key ingredient

Alert actions by a science supply business and an international shipping business separately sounded alarms that led federal agents to a Saudi Arabian man's Lubbock apartment, where they found almost everything needed to manufacture one or more bombs.

Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari's efforts to buy his final ingredient, a liquid chemical called phenol, prompted employees at Carolina Biological Supply and Con-Way Inc. to contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation with suspicions about the purchase and the buyer.

Phenol, also known as carbolic acid, is used in college-level organic chemistry classes and is a common ingredient of household disinfectants.

And, as it turned out, it was the only item he needed to begin the bomb-making process.

According to an FBI affidavit, Aldawsari had spent hundreds of dollars ordering chemical laboratory equipment, along with nitric and sulfuric acid, through online retail hub Amazon.com, and tried to buy some items on the eBay auction site.

Online searching found that concentrated phenol is not readily available for sale.

"One day after shipping the product we became aware that the order was suspicious. We immediately notified the FBI and ordered the product returned to us. It was returned and never delivered to Mr. Aldawsari," according to a statement issued by the Burlington, N.C.-based science supply business.

Carolina Biological sells science classroom supplies for schools from kindergarten through the university level.

According to its website, Carolina Biological will sell phenol only to schools or businesses and will not sell to individuals or ship the product to a residence.

According to the FBI affidavit, the order was shipped via Con-Way Freight. Aldawsari asked that the package - 10 500-milliliter bottles of concentrated phenol - be held for pickup at Con-Way's Lubbock freight office.

At that time, Con-Way told him the package had arrived and was sent back.

Gary Frantz, director of corporate communications for the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based freight company said: "The shipment matched profiles outlined in Con-Way's security protocols for identifying shipments of a suspicious nature, and which appeared for use not consistent with known commercial application of the product. These concerns triggered the company's Homeland Security escalation plan."

Most major freight companies have a profile system in place for working with law enforcement agencies, Frantz added.

FBI agents examined the shipment before it was returned to Carolina Biological, Frantz said.

According to the FBI's affidavit, Aldawsari also juggled the shipping conditions on an order for nitric acid.

When the supplier on that order said it couldn't ship the chemical to a residential address, the suspect gave the address of a FedEx Office store on University Avenue near Aldawsari's apartment on Glenna Goodacre Boulevard.

However, he picked up that package from Con-Way's Lubbock terminal.

Jim McCluskey, a FedEx spokesman, explained that the acid shipment would not have been accepted at a FedEx Office location, because company policy prohibits having "dangerous goods" on the premises.

Law enforcement agencies also received full cooperation from McDougal Properties, which owns the building where Aldawsari was a tenant.

"The safety of our residents is our highest priority. McDougal Properties thanks local and federal law enforcement for their professionalism in handling this matter," company president Michael C. McDougal said in a written statement.